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Definitive results will depend on an analysis of data in coming
days following Thursday's test, which went ahead after a pause
in the final countdown caused by what ESA officials described as
a "light anomaly".
The test at the European spaceport in French Guiana involved
igniting the core-stage Vulcain 2.1 engine and then running it
for seven minutes, which is about the time it would take for the
launcher to reach space, ESA said.
Ariane 6 is being developed by ArianeGroup, a joint venture
between Airbus and Safran, in order to better compete with U.S.
private launch provider SpaceX.
Its predecessor, Ariane 5, flew for the last time in July and
the smaller Vega C remains grounded following a failure in
December last year, leaving Europe without independent access to
space. Russia blocked European use of its Soyuz rockets last
year in response to Western sanctions over Ukraine.
"We are back on track towards re-securing Europe's autonomous
access to space," ESA Director General Josef Aschbacher said in
a statement late on Thursday.
Aschbacher said last month he hoped to be able to announce a
launch window for a delayed inaugural flight to be held in 2024,
depending on the results of the test carried out on Thursday.
(Reporting By Tim Hepher in Paris; editing by Jonathan Oatis and
Sonali Paul)
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